My daughter lives in NYC and I’ve been outraged to see how much better her weather has been. I’m just done with this cold and damp. I want the sun and perfect 72 degrees back!
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She made the right choice.
Congrats on the decision!!
Just chiming in- the proximity to the coast keeps RI fairly mild year-round. It gets cold snaps, but it just does not STAY cold for more than a few days at a time.
Definitely wait on buying the $800+ Canada Goose… a decent North Face and a pair of lined Bean Boots will do. 
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Last year in June we got a great deal at a North Face outlet for D23. Even though we are New England she would never wear a long coat. She has already used many times. She already had the LLBean duck boots and a pair of Blundstone boots. Not sure if I will ever get her to wear a hat I think she will just use the hood on the jacket.
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That definitely is highly unusual (and tbh, seems silly). I fail to see how college GPAs and high school test scores outweigh decades of real world work experience.
I’m curious to know what industry, and if you’re a small firm?
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Huge congrats! Sounds like he found the perfect college home (and the right price too!) I’ve enjoyed following your journey and it’s always exciting to hear about these happy endings! You should be very proud 
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I just went down the rabbit hole watching so many of their newer videos that I’ve missed! 
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Finance and thousands of employees (but not tens of thousands).
Been this way for decades. Peers are similar. And they do care. The background checks confirm official transcripts and candidates have been tripped up for having exaggerated GPA’s even by 10-20 basis points.
I’m not in charge so can’t say why except that they care about fit as much as experience and believe that academic excellence is the right fit. If this were a CDS form, I would say fit is “very important” and experience is “important.”
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My son is 99% sure he will be committing to Case Western, pending any surprises or twists. He wanted to follow up on a few remote events he signed up for out of courtesy (but doesn’t expect any to change where his heart is pointing him.) Plus he has a trip to Boston with band this week so wants to enjoy that & make the official commit when he gets home Sunday. He did decline offers from 4 schools where he was definite they were out of the running:
Fordham (@ $53k way out of budget)
UMASS Boston (@ $35,600-over budget)
Xavier (@ $34k-over budget, never got to visit)
DePaul (price was close to our target range @ $27k and he LOVES Chicago but he got the vibe it was a better school for business or pre-law or the arts and not so much for psych/social sciences. To be fair, we weren’t able to visit so that might not be accurate, just his impressions from his research.)
He didn’t feel a “personal touch” from any of these 4 so he just clicked the decline box on the portal. However, he did feel connections with the other 11 he will decline so he drafted emails to those admission departments and admission counselors (which he will send along with him officially declining on the portal) so he can thank them for their communication and outreach.
It’s been an emotional few weeks and if you asked me on April 8th where he’d be going, I would have never dreamed Case Western would come through on the financial aid in a big way. Seeing his reaction when we said yes to his question “wait, is Case possible now?” was priceless. And watching him glow on campus and seem so excited and comfortable made this whole crazy process worth it!
Best of luck to all your kids over the next few weeks! Can’t believe we all made it through this marathon, but hopefully the advice and support here kept us strong! I sure do appreciate it!
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Congratulations. Because of the merit money I took my D21 down to visit Bama. I loved it and thought the campus was gorgeous. I would have signed up on the spot. And look being from Pittsbugh I love Pitt. But to me Bama screams what a college is supposed to look like. My daughter liked the campus but as we were driving there we saw a little strip mall that had a sign for a place called “Bama Tans.” So she had this idea that all the girls there were superficial sorority types. Ridiculous of course, but things get into these 17 year brains that no amount of dispelling those ideas can shake them of. She still talks about “Bama Tans”. As it turns out she ended up at Miami of Ohio with an excellent OOS + tuition merit scholarship. Ironically she joined a sorority.
With law school as your son’s ultimate goal graduating undergraduate debt free is very smart. The T14 law schools can run $60,000+ per year for tuition alone. However, if your son studies hard, makes great grade and score high on the LSATs there is merit money to be had. My D21 who went to Clemson, graduated in 3 years (with the help of 36 AP credits) is currently at University of Florida Levin Law School (ranked 21) on a full ride. She is going to graduate from law school debt free.
Congratulation again to you, your son and your family.
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Speaking of deposits, it’s interesting how varied they are. In this latest round, our son’s accepted schools had commitment despots that varied from close to $1K down to nothing, and everywhere in-between. Seems like some schools weaponize it as a disincentive against taking WL offers, and others schools don’t.
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Strange. I have worked at financial firms for most of my career. Background checks are done to verify a candidate’s educational background but we’ve never made a hiring decision (at any of the firms I’ve been at) for an experienced candidate (and certainly not one with decades of experience) based on their transcript and test scores. Definitely an outlier.
Yes, fit is very important. But that’s not based on academic achievements from the distant past.
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We pressed our son to apply to Fordham as a safety specifically because they marketed large merit aid to NMFs and in the end their offer was very underwhelming. Case offered more merit not even counting their separate NMF scholarships. Fordham was the very first school off the list. I saw a lot of people complaining on the Fordham discussion here about the high price tag of their tuition, room and board and disappointing aid.
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Don’t know what to tell you. It is what it is. Our closest peers do the same (I know because many of my colleagues worked for them previously). The jobs are coveted and we never have problems sourcing competitive candidates.
I attended college in Maine - good boots are a must for winter. They should be waterproof and warm. Sorel makes great boots that really last (I have a pair that are 10 years old and still going strong). In terms of a coat, it is hard to say. Most boys hate wearing coats - despite the fact we live in MA where we have cold (though not as cold as the old days) weather, my kids rarely wear a coat. They do mainly if they are shoveling or doing some type of outdoor activity. Otherwise, it is some combination of lined flannel shirts and hoodies. For coats, there are plenty of good options at a variety of price points - just make sure anything you get is water repellent.
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Uniqlo is a good place to look for winter jackets. Fashionable, inexpensive and they have lined hoodies that my kids used for years that kept them warm enough. You can also look for 3 in 1 type jackets and not just the traditional Columbia type ski jackets but nowadays you can find plenty off different types that have a zip-in lining of some thin warm material so it makes it a 3 season jacket.
If your kid wears jeans you could also look into getting some jeans with flannel lining. They are great when walking outdoors and aren’t as constricting as wearing long underwear. Maybe try 1 pair and if they use them a lot you can order more (I’ve found them on Amazon).
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When my daughter went to school in a much colder climate, we covered all the serious winter gear (which she uses once in a while.) What she didn’t have were jeans with no holes in them and a good light weight coat, which is what she wears 99% of the winter.
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Agree. We too were disappointed as our COA was 54K! For NMF.
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I was one of those who complained. Daughter was admitted to Lincoln Center for film and received a nice $25k merit scholarship. I thought that would bring it into our budget until I entered the merit into the spreadsheet I created and realized the 23-24 direct COA was about 10% more than 22-23, about $8k.
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Undergrad degree in forensic science is not a must for what she wants to do. To end up at her intended career, she will need graduate school, which will be in forensic science. Biology is certainly a major that a lot of forensic scientists choose.